Tama Assist Re: generated twine
The plan to reduce farm plastic has been a ‘hot topic’ for a decade or more. The word plastic has become ‘poisonous’ to some and its use in farming increasingly frowned upon. But it is not that plastics on farm are bad, it’s their use only a single time before being re-cycled into ‘end of life’ plastic products, that mean more virgin plastic is required for future use.
We have all become used to separating our used crop baling and wrapping materials (netwrap, baler twine, stretch film and silage sheets etc.) making them available for collection and, ultimately, re-cycled for use somewhere else. This is known in the industry as ‘openloop’, meaning they are re-used to make something else but not to make twine.
Re-generating or recycling used plastics is nothing new. Typically, used farm-plastics including twine, netwrap or stretchfilm are re-purposed into ‘final state’ products such as fence posts or cattle-slat flooring and these cannot be further re-processed. This brings no reduction in the need for ‘new’ plastic for farm consumables.
Some producers claim their products contain recycled material, though this is nothing more than ‘in-house’ waste created during production, like off-cuts of pastry when home-baking being re-incorporated back into the dough. This does nothing to reduce the use of ‘on-farm’ plastics.
In a unique and industry leading move, Tama Group have formed a partnership with Netherlands based company Healix, in which used twine and netwrap are re-generated back into high-grade PP and PE polymers that are then re-used in the manufacture of new Twine or Netwrap. Uniquely, taking old and used twine and re-generating it directly back into new product!
Unlike the existing ‘openloop’ situation of re-cycling old twine into an ‘end-of life’ plastic, the ability of using the material of the old, used product to make new product is called ‘closed-loop’. This ground-breaking development is unique to Tama through their joint-development with Healix’s patented technology which can transform what was once used baler twine, back into new PP resin of high quality suitable for use in the manufacture of new twine, thus reducing the requirement for ‘virgin’ raw material resins.
Naturally, regenerating new polymer from previously used twine has some implication on the visual appearance. This new segment of the market also brings a new and distinctive colour for the twine, to clearly identify it and show it as the ‘genuine’ re-generated twine, reducing ‘on-farm’ plastic and helping to make farming better. This also makes any discarded twines much easier to see. This is nothing more than a colour change from the existing white, rust or yellow of LSB Long, Medium and Hay twine. The Cycle twine range maintains the same, renowned strength and high-performance knotting capability of Tama twine.
As with any new development from Tama, the new twine has had a long birth, with extensive field trials in almost all major baling regions worldwide that proved beyond doubt its suitability for all baling conditions. Most importantly, the critical field work confirmed the laboratory and design expectations in that the twine matches the high strength and knotting performance of Tama’s existing twine. This means Cycle twine can become part of your normal seasonal twine requirement, without any changes to operation and, remember, every spool used is a real and measurable reduction in the use of ‘on-farm’ plastics, as it is re-using what was already made for ‘on-farm’ use.
Tama Group continue to challenge old traditions, instead offering true solutions for end users. What could be more important at this time, than an ethical and truly sustainable option for on-farm plastic.